NEW DELHI: Amid the furore over his Rashtrapatni remarks, Congress Lok Sabha MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Friday tendered an apology to President Draupadi Murmu saying it was a “slip of the tongue”.
In a letter addressed to the President, he wrote: “I am writing to express my regret for having mistakenly used an incorrect word to describe the position you hold. I assure you that it was a slip of the tongue. I apologise and request you to accept the same.”
Chowdhury has faced flak from the ruling BJP after he was heard referring to the President as “Rashtrapatni” in a video clip.
The BJP, led by ministers Smriti Irani in Lok Sabha and Nirmala Sitharaman in Rajya Sabha on Thursday protested against the remarks and sought an apology from both Chowdhury and Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi.
In the Rajya Sabha, Sitharaman said calling the President “Rashtrapatni” was a “sexist insult” because “Rasthrapati is a gender agnostic word”.